$4.6M facility plans head to Design Review Board

Marysville's Design Review Board will consider an application June 12 for a $4.6-million Nationwide Children's Hospital Close to Home Center at 100 Coleman's Crossing Blvd.

AMY ROGAN, ThisWeek Community News

Marysville's Design Review Board will consider an application June 12 for a $4.6-million Nationwide Children's Hospital Close to Home Center at 100 Coleman's Crossing Blvd.

According to a release from the hospital, the new facility is expected to create 40 new jobs, accompanied by an investment of approximately $6 million in capital for the building, with about $2 million annually in salaries and benefits.

Hospital representatives will present conceptual renderings to the Design Review Board for a 20,800-square-foot facility planned for 2.4 acres in the City Gate area at the north end of Coleman's Crossing Boulevard. The hospital hopes to begin construction in July and open in the spring of 2014.

City Planner Greg Delong said after the Design Review Board approves the plans, zoning permits and building permits must be issued. Each permit must be reviewed and once that is complete, then construction can begin, he said.

Nationwide Children's Hospital announced in November 2012 it would build a Close to Home Center in Marysville.

Plans for the Marysville center include urgent care services, an 800-square-foot reference lab, exam rooms, two radiology rooms and a space for speech therapy. Decisions are still pending regarding specialty clinics or additional services.

Nationwide Children's operates 15 Close to Home centers in Ohio, most in the Columbus area. Not all offer urgent care. The centers feature community-based testing, treatment and care for newborns, children and young adults.

Kent Weakley, regional site director for Nationwide Children's, said the Close to Home Centers are always designed to complement services already provided by community physicians.

"Each time we establish a center, we always work with community pediatricians and community members in order to understand the community's needs and determine the types of specialty clinics and additional services that will eventually be provided," he said.

Weakley, a Marysville resident, pointed out that Nationwide Children's Hospital treated Union County children more than 12,000 times in 2012.

"We recognize Marysville and Union County as areas expanding their needs for pediatric services with a 26-percent growth in pediatric population from census year 2000 to 2010," Weakley said.

The design-build project team is led by Thomas & Marker Construction; the consulting engineering firm Karpinski Engineering provided professional design services.

Thomas & Marker Construction is based in Bellefontaine and opened a Marysville location in 2000. It has been building health care facilities since it began business in 1956.

When they announced plans for the Close to Home center in Marysville last November, officials from Nationwide Children's said they were "open to collaborating on the venture" but had no partnership announcements to make.

At that time, Melanie Ziegler, director of marketing, public relations and development for Memorial Hospital of Union County, said she couldn't comment on whether there would be a future relationship between the two hospitals, citing a confidentiality agreement.

Ziegler again had no comment when called June 4.

City officials said they have not received any communication from Nationwide Children's Hospital other than the submitted application that is on the Design Review Board agenda.

The June 12 board meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. in Marysville City Council chambers, 125 E. Sixth St.

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